The 10 Books That Influenced Me The Most...

One of my friends on Facebook was challenged to the test that is my title for today's blog, and my cheeky comment to her was "I could only get the list down to 10 if allowed to use series as a single book".

I've been thinking about it.  My cheeky, off-the-cuff immediate response was absolutely correct.

Take the "book" that I think influenced me the most: "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. The singular tale itself is quite powerful, with a message that I think was well captured in Peter Jackson's film when when Galadriel says " Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

But therein begins the dilemma.  If I count the next books that influenced me the most, it would have to be the three books of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  That removes the first four slots quite handily, but.....

There are also all of these books:

The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey (3 main books and many offshoots)
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King (7 main books and one offshoot - so far)
"King of the Wind" by Marguerite Henty
The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley (20 of them)
"Stuart Little" and "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (7 more books)
365 Bedtime Stories: A Story for Every Day of the Year by Nan Gilbert (because I NEEDED a short story every day about the kids on What A Jolly Street)

As I sit and try to type a name for a book - just one at a time - onto the list, other books crowd up, wanting to make sure to be mentioned, as there are so many with such memorable characters: Tigger and Winnie-the-Pooh, the Mad Hatter & the Cheshire Cat, Horse Badorties from William Kotzwinkle's "The Fan Man", Walter the Farting Dog.....the list goes on and on....

And, of course, the classics that we were "forced" to read in class also influenced me greatly. I once fought the idea of becoming a published writer because I didn't want to end up like Captain Ahab, endlessly chasing the "white whale" of a pipe dream, for example...

I guess the best way for me to state this is simply: I gain a little something from all the books I read, whether it be simple entertainment that touches something inside to make it memorable or a life's lesson, as those old tales that used to end "and the moral of the story is...."

My life is and always has been surrounded and influenced by the books I've read, the places I've gone, whether actual places or just figments of the author's imagination. Parts of every book stay with me to come out at the oddest times - such as sitting in an outhouse in the middle of the North Maine Woods and, seeing a bright light, suddenly remembering a scene from Stephen King's "Dreamcatcher" involving a toilet and an alien being.........

Yes indeed.  Some books influence me by being thought provoking. Some influence me by giving me a great sense of humor. And some influence me by making me freak out in the middle of nowhere because of imagined terrors......

*gives an evil grin as the light fades*

Models,Copyrights, and Other Oddities

A few years ago, I started reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter Series. I like her.  She has a web site where one can go and look at the characters from her books in stock photos she's (or perhaps one of her helpers) found that looks like she pictures them.

In the interest of doing something similar for those who read my books, I used my new favorite play space, Facebook, and made a fan page for "Night of the Tiger".

I'm still kind of learning as I go about such things.

I started off with random pictures of men who looked like one aspect or another of my character, then came across Greek model Theo Theordoridis, who, even though I found him two decades after the tall, muscular, green-eyed, dark haired truck driver started haunting me, he's definitely the way I picture Kyle Benton:

Now - about copyrights. I found this photo on www.fanpop.com (http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/theo-theodoridis/images/29072244/title/theo-theodoridis-photo).  Now, as long as I tell you that, I haven't broken any copyright laws and I can use this picture.  It helps to talk to the model and get permission from them to tie them to your book - and maybe get them a little extra traffic to the sites that have photos, which can sometimes result in offers to do shoots.....

Theo was an interesting person to chat with.

For Teresanna, I haven't managed to get a response from Jarah Mariano yet, but since I'm showing the Kyle I have on Facebook, how about the lovely Tiger Lady herself, Teresanna Montesallo, aka Tanya LaMonte, aka Teran Hodges.....among other names used over 7 years. It was actually a very vulnerable shot that brought Jarah Mariano to my attention on this web site: http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f52/jarah-mariano-41967-10.html

Like Theo, she looks so much like the image in my head, it's scary, like in this wallpaper: http://www.celebs101.com/wallpaper--2-2716--Jarah+Mariano+wallpaper+Wallpaper.html

Then came book two, more models to find, but with Chase Benton, I had the two above to look at, my "fan base" was getting more active, and we found Dylan Griner, Los Angeles model, who seems to fit the bill.  http://www.headshotsla.com/portfolio/male/httpwww-joshuamshelton-com-headshots-los-angeles-dylan-griner-5/

For anyone who wants to know, it was while talking with Dylan that I got my education about getting copyright to use the photo on your book. The lovely photos like this one by Joshua Shelton have set copyrights, usually put into place at the time of the photo shoot.

In short, unless I specifically hire the above people and pay for a shoot for the cover of my book(s), I can't use their images as the characters on my covers, BUT I can, with the right links, say "this is what I picture my character looking like" and, hopefully, drive a little money their way by those who actually have money.  Something tells me nobody wants my pocket lint as payment for a shoot.....

But Dylan and Joshua Shelton, the photographer, were both very interesting to talk to.

But for Aloriah, I knew a local model who needed the money....ANY amount of money at that point, as she was unemployed and having a rough time of it, so I paid her what I could for a photo shoot, and my first actual copyright photos for use came about, with the lovely Belle Louve portraying Aloriah Starbird. 

She even colored her hair for me!  I thought I'd been truly blessed with Belle Louve and the friend who helped with the cover for "The Tiger's Cub"

Then I started writing "A Wild Tiger's Heart".  And I asked for help finding an Italian looking model for Stefan Savoldi - and Damiel Sobieray's photo appeared 16 times in my news feed the next morning.  Again, I was approaching a Los Angeles model for permission to use his photo for a character, not expecting anything more.....but he's done covers before.  He knows people. I dug deep and was able to come up with a photo shoot.

And, armed with a description of Kelly Starbird, Daniel found Patrice Garza, He arranged the shoot with David Wagner, Los Angeles photographer. I have more photos that I don't need to ask permission for me to use...like this lovely pic, the second choice shot when choosing which photo to use on the cover: 

When I sat down at my ancient typewriter in my apartment in 1988 and started writing a short, steamy scene that I planned to submit to Playgirl Magazine just to prove to my mother-in-law that I could make money writing, did I expect to be sitting here in 2014, talking about how to avoid copyright issues with models to represent the characters of your book?  In 1988, the most I'd seen a computer do was some mildly entertaining game play after about 5 hours of typing in commands. I'm living in a science fiction world according to my 1988 self.

I want to thank all the beautiful people above whom I've spoken to and have gained permission to tie to the characters. The conversations we've had have been great fun.

As to the only one whose official permission I haven't gained yet to represent my character.....she's a brilliant, strong woman who happens to meet a sexy trucker with green eyes........

to be continued.........

Crossing my "i's" and Dotting my "t's" - or something like that

As I'm in the process of editing scenes involving the characters from the first two novels as well as the ones I see every day in the "rushes" for the cover art, I find myself going back to the fan pages for the first two books.  That meant a slightly uncomfortable time when I realized something:

When I first found models to represent the characters, I was new to Facebook and simply posted the photos of those I thought looked like my characters, attached the links to where I had found those photos, and then sat back and hoped that the models wouldn't be offended. That was with the first book of the Tiger Series, "Night of the Tiger".

It was the basic means of being able to use photographs on one's web site without having to gain special permission, as one doesn't claim ownership to the photographs when attaching the site where the photograph was found. It allows for use of copyrighted material under the laws of the copyright here in the United States, as it's considered fair as long as that link exists to where the photo was found.

I changed my M.O. slightly when, quite by accident, one of the models I had suggested for Chase Benton found his photos on "The Tiger's Cub" fan page - and liked the page. I approached Dylan Griner via a Facebook message and discovered he appreciated the exposure. He was such a gracious young man, I approached the girl I was thinking of using for Aloriah Starbird and got her permission to use BEFORE I posted her photos. She even pulled in a favor from a photographer who wanted practice at shooting models instead of just locations and nice scenery and provided me with photos of her in character.....

So that was the M.O. I followed with book three, "A Wild Tiger's Heart". When presented with a handsome model in response to a public request on Facebook for an Italian looking man to portray Stefan Savoldi, I approached him as I had Dylan - and got a lot more than "permission to use".  I got a female model who also was willing to represent Kelly Starbird. I got a cover shoot to beat all cover shoots. As I've stated before, I am most grateful for Daniel Sobieray and his involvement in getting me hooked up with models and a photographer from Los Angeles who've made the experience of writing my first book so much more of a blast....

But as I was drifting off to sleep a couple of days ago, I had a little bit of a guilty conscience. I have never technically "approached" Theodoros Theodoridis about using his photographs as Kyle Benton.  True, I joined a Facebook group that encouraged sending letters to him while he was in a Greek prison for cocaine trafficking, but I never really got a response back.  And as for Jarah Mariano, the lovely Polynesian looking model whom I think looks the most like the Teresanna Montesallo in my head, I hadn't even approached her in that small of a manner.

I tried to remedy that earlier this week, separately messaging Theo, who was released earlier this year and has started modeling again in Greece, as well as Jarah.  Jarah still hasn't responded, and Theo responded with this picture:

In some of the messages he gave the group that I belonged to on Facebook as well as some of the videos he's posted on You Tube, I'm hoping this is the sexy Greek model's somewhat silly way of giving me permission to use his photos.  Not a bad average, if so, as that's 5 out of 6 approached models giving me permission to tie their images to my characters - naturally giving my fans other photos that I haven't used to look at as well when the links lead to photo shoots, Facebook pages, agencies that represent the models, etc.

So, my lesson for today for those following along with how to get your book noticed:  Make a fan page on a site like Facebook.  Find models who you think look like your characters. Don't be too shy to write to ask them for permission to use their photographs to represent your character, especially with the offer to direct people to the web sites that are going to get them noticed and will, hopefully, get someone else to think of them for the next modeling job they have that might need someone who looks like that model. You may find yourself with new connections that will make book covers much easier in your future.

Or you may just get a long distance Snoopy kiss from a nice looking model from another country.

Learning Photoshop Elements

When I first got published, I was involved in an extremely small fashion.  Quite simply, for both The Pequawket Valley News, where I was published almost weekly in their poetry section (which they called The North Country Bard), and for the original short story version of "Night of the Tiger", which appeared in the August 1989 Playgirl Magazine's Fantasy Forum section as "Tanya - My Bodyguard", I just wrote the piece, sent it in or dropped it off and there it was in print a short time later.  Playgirl was my first experience with editors, as they changed Tanya from living in a Winnebago to a condo, but otherwise, it was my words.  My concept.

Before I actually finished "Night of the Tiger", I was already starting to learn marketing, even though I wasn't aware of it at the time.  I learned HTML programming from a tutorial, and using what I learned, I put together a web site to showcase my own previously published poems as well as those from some of the friends I had make in a chat room.  As with the poems and short story, I sent the romance novel I had finished off to publishers, and when it was accepted by ebooksonthe.net, I put up a page about the book, including an introductory first few chapters.  I didn't know about programs like Photoshop, so my first attempt at a cover when the thumbnail cover from Connie Foster and Fannie Glass pixilated when enlarged basically wasn't that great.

As I'm finishing what is to be my third published novel, I'm hearing rumblings about this cover vs the other two.  Seems that, by insisting that this one is going to be more artistic and more "my baby" than the last two covers, I've opened a whole new can of worms.  The prior covers are being called "amatuerish", among other ruder things that I won't share here.  Prior covers that I thought much more eye catching were put down by my former publisher and, if they'd had their way, my last published work would have been put out with a cover that was much less "artsy" than the one I finally got them to agree to - under duress.

Needless to say, I'm taking the comments about all three covers to heart, and as I'm learning marketing techniques that I'm hoping will boost sales, I'm also learning another new program in tutorials that will help me to present a concept to the art director for the new publishing company I'm going through so that we can work together to make better covers for future works.

So, going back to something I learned from a co-worker many moons ago, I'm still learning so I don't get stupid.  I have to admit that, with the right tutorials and a little help from those who've used this program, it's actually kind of fun.

What would be my advice to others looking to publish their work?

Don't just sit back and let the so-called "professionals" have too much power over your baby.

Your work is like your blood, sweat and tears.  Don't let someone else who only sees it as a means of padding their own pocket do things that you don't approve of.

Learn things that will allow you to have more creative power and will allow you to go to your publisher with "I was thinking more of something like this" should they try to cheapen your work with a shabby cover.

For myself, that means learning what to do with covers along with the art director of the current publisher, bouncing ideas back and forth that are resulting in something we can both be proud to claim.  Now if only the Photoshop Elements 12 tutorials could also tell me whether or not these new covers will help boost the marketing strategies I started learning before the release of "The Tiger's Cub"....... 

Getting closer to the release/The Cover

As time is flying by faster and faster with me stressing out because I have to complete the editing for the rest of the pre-release things to happen, we at least have settled on the look for the text on the cover.  The final front cover looks like this, and the art director is starting work on the back cover, which, after seeing several other new books covers from several other publishing companies, we've decided will have the second choice photo from this same shoot as the back cover.....

(There is still a test to be made to confirm that the "gold" letters will look gold when printed on the proper paper with the right ink, but I'm truly impressed with how good this looks, and don't regret spending my hard earned cash for the photo shoot with Daniel Sobieray and Patrice Garza.  They really look marvelous, don't they?)

In the meantime, talks have begun for a re-release of the first two books, with only a new "Northern Bard Release" cover to be done on "The Tiger's Cub" and a new cover plus a couple of minor corrections to be done to the story in "Night of the Tiger".  I'll still be using Belle Louve as the cover model for "Cub", since she was able to give us full permission to use her photos and I simply can't afford Dylan Griner, but I'm going to start looking for an Asian/American looking model to be Teresanna/Tanya/The Lady Tigre for "Night".

Suggestions will be welcomed, especially if anyone can suggest a handsome green eyed muscleman to play Kyle in the same photo shoot without pushing my budget limits too hard....

Thank you to all who are still reading my blogs, and I sincerely hope you like Kelly and Stefan.